No need to be wordy when it it comes to this weekend's Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen at Watkins Glen International, the first major race weekend of the year at the road course. Familiar faces, top sports-car talent and a test of endurance are among the attractions in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship event, one of four series competing at the track during the weekend.

Acura Team Penske has two cars boasting top-tier talent in the featured event. Dane Cameron and Juan Pablo Montoya will handle driving duties in the No. 6 Acura DPi for Penske. Montoya's seven full seasons in NASCAR's top series produced two wins, with the second triumph coming at Watkins Glen in 2010.

Team Penske's No. 7 pairing features Ricky Taylor and Helio Castroneves, who less than a year ago finished fourth in the Verizon IndyCar Series event at Watkins Glen. Castroneves, a three-time Indy 500 winner, is driving in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship this season after moving over from his full-time ride with Penske in the IndyCar Series. Castroneves did still compete in this year's Indy 500,

Taylor and Castroneves captured the Acura Sports Car Challenge on May 6 at Mid-Ohio, one of five WeatherTech events held so far this year.

After some Thursday practices for support series, Friday will mark the first full day of action at the track for the weekend, which will culminate with the Six Hours of the Glen at 9:45 a.m. Sunday. Live television coverage will be shown on FS1, starting at 9:30 a.m.

Saturday's top race will be the 4-hour Continental Tire 240, a Continental Tire Sportscar Challenge event. The Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge and the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Series will each have two races, one on Friday and another on Saturday.

For an idea of the depth in the field, the provisional entry list includes 105 drivers, 26 of whom have finished first overall or in class at the Six Hours of The Glen.

That list is led by the No. 5 Mustang Sampling Racing Cadillac DPi of Filipe Albuquerque, Christian Fittipaldi and Gabby Chaves. Last year Fittipaldi and Albuquerque teamed with Joao Barbosa for the overall win in the Six Hours of The Glen. Barbosa is sidelined with a wrist injury suffered while cycling early in June.

"It's not ideal, what we're going through," Albuquerque said in a press release. "It’s a shame for Joao not to be contesting with the experience that he has, but we’ll deal with the situation. It’s good to have Gabby now in the car. He knows Watkins Glen from IndyCar and he just needs to get used to the DPi. I think he will manage that quite easily, because it’s not miles away from an IndyCar."

Albuquerque, Barbosa and Fittipaldi opened the season with a victory at the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Barbosa and Albuquerque added a victory April 14 at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Andy Lally, competing in the GTD division in the No. 44 Magnus Racing Audi R8 along with John Potter and Andrew Davis, leads the field with four victories in this event. No other racer is more enthusiastic about competing at the 3.45-mile circuit.

"Watkins Glen is my favorite racetrack on the planet for a number of reasons," he said in a press release. “It is my home state of New York and one of the most exciting racetracks to drive around the planet.

"There’s never a driver that shows up at Watkins Glen that does not like the amazing speed and rhythm that is found at The Glen. It’s the best case in the world for making hairpins illegal, because you just never stop with an awesome flow and pace around there."

Last year Lally teamed with Katherine Legge to win the race's GTD class. Legge returns this year to drive in the class with Alvaro Parente in the No. 86 Meyer Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian Acura.

Bill Auberlen comes in with three Six Hours of the Glen wins to his credit, including GT class victories in 2002 and 2004, along with the GTLM class last year. He is partnered with Alexander Sims and Connor De Phillipi in the No. 25 GTLM Chip Ganassi Racing Ford.

Felipe Nasr and Eric Curran are the series' most recent Prototype winners, having taken the Chevrolet Sports Car Classic on June 2 at Belle Isle in Detroit. They will compete in the No. 31 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac along with Mike Conway.

The No. 22 Tequila Petron ESM Nissan of Pipo Derani, Johannes van Overbeek and Nicolas Lapierre already has an endurance win this season, with that coming March 17 at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

The teams of Barbosa/Albuquerque and Curran/Nasr are atop the WeatherTech standings with 144 points each. Ricky Taylor and Castroneves are third with 130, matching the total of Renger Van Der Zande and Jordan Taylor, who is Ricky's brother. Six races remain after Watkins Glen.

Watkins Glen is the third of four races in the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship's Tequila Patron North American Endurance Cup, which crowns a champion among the series' endurance races. The others are the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring and a 10-hour race at Petit Le Mans on Oct. 13 in Braselton, Georgia.

Schedule Highlights

FRIDAY

8-8:45 a.m.: GT3 Cup qualifying

9:30-10:05: Trofeo qualifying

12:50-1:25 p.m.: Continental qualifying

1:45-2:30 p.m.: GT3 Cup Race No. 1

4:10-5 p.m.: Trofeo Race No. 1

SATURDAY

9:20-10:05 a.m.: GT3 Cup Race No. 2

10:25-11:15: Trofeo Race No. 2

11:35-12:40 p.m.: WeatherTech qualifying

1:55-5:55 p.m.: Continental Tire 240 (4 hours)

SUNDAY

9:45 a.m.-3:45 p.m.: Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen (live coverage on FS1 starting at 9:30)